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Operation Illapa
Operation Illapa is the final main storyline mission of Just Cause 4. Not to be confused with The Illapa Project (an earlier mission), or the Project Illapa (article for the project itself). Introduction Quote from the map marker: "Espinosa is cornered in his fortress in the mountains. The Army of Chaos is on his doorstep. Gather the troops and finish the fight." When the mission is unlocked and the player is outside of missions, Rico makes a phone call to Mira, telling her that the time is right to attack Illapa and to gather everyone. Walkthrough Rico arrives at Estación Atalaya. The Sandstinger train and the Stormchaser are parked there. Mira, Luis, César, Tom, Izzy, and Lanza are gathered around a table discussing how to take down Illapa after all three weather towers have been taken down. Rico walks past them and looks at the train. The others discuss that they've detected massive energy spikes at the facility. César suspects that the "lizard man is returning to the mothership". The others are not amused by this, and he says that he was only joking. Lanza fears that the Project Illapa is nearing completion. Mira mentions that Oscar was working on a more advanced mobile weapon and Lanza confirms this, by saying that a single weapon that could create any type of storm had always been Oscar's plan. Mira complains that they can't do anything as long as the "Blizzard Core" is activated. Sheldon then asks Rico for a plan, to which Rico looks like he's about to make a joke. The "SANDSTINGER" train is changed to now read "SNOWSTINGER" and Rico goes over the plan with the members. Sargento is directly leading the Army of Chaos into Illapa. César will use equipment to try to locate the blizzard core. Sheldon is going to fly the helicopter to carry Mira and Izzy. Lanza operates the train into Illapa. The train is also carrying César and the Stormchaser. Meanwhile, at Illapa, Gabriela Morales and Oscar Espinosa are having a heated discussion in Oscars office. Gabriela says that with the units available, she could only defend the mountain and that attacking would result in unacceptable collateral damage to their Black Hand forces and that she will not accept her Black Hand as collateral damage. Oscar says he would never have considered the option, but there is a heavily armed rabble at his front door. He continues to complain that the people of Solís are in an open revolt for the first time in five hundred years. He insists that Project Illapa was the culmination of the Espinosa legacy and that it's a priceless technology that could rebuild his family's fortune. Gabriela storms out. Approaching Illapa The player gets control of Rico. Rico is standing on the roof of the SNOWSTINGER locomotive. The cannon car is behind Rico. It's possible to hijack the turret from the guy in it, but there is no-one to use it against. Along the way, Thunderhead Bomber Jets and Fellhawk Jet Fighters fly past in Army of Chaos Faction colors and symbols. The train stops at a station called Estación Tranquila where the Black Hand has cut power to the track. You are now tasked to use 2 computers to turn the power back on. The train station spawns infinite Black Hand soldiers, so there's no need to fight them all. Drive the Stormchaser At this point, Rico has to drive the Stormchaser into Illapa. César mentions that he has added seat warming equipment into the Stormchaser. There is an AoC Prizefighter Tank and two helicopters escorting you, but they will be stopped at a Black Hand roadblock within only a couple hundred meters. Oddly, the helicopters appeared to be piloted by Black Hand privates. The storm has lightning, that occasionally strikes nearby enemy units and the coil on the Stormchaser. Along the way, there will be a couple more similar roadblocks, but they are similarly absolutely ineffectual and can be simply driven past/over. One area has a bridge and the action resembles the front. Just drive past them. Eventually, you'll reach the bases gate area. A giant door is locked and the door is held shut by two generators behind doors. The doors are located to the right of the door. There are computers next to each door that opens them and the generators can be destroyed by being grappled. The computers need to be "hacked", so the player should start by killing all Black Hand soldiers in the area and grappling their helicopters to the ground before continuing. If you get hit by them while hacking, you have to restart the hacking process. Blizzard Core After opening the door, you can drive the Stormchaser into the base, but the Stormchaser is no longer necessary. A funny thing to note is that driving the Stormchaser into the base results in lightning occasionally hitting the coil right through the ceiling of the base. Soon you'll have to stop in a large room that has a locked door. The base has thick fog in this area, so it's uncomfortable to see. Again there are 2 computers to hack and several enemies to kill. The entire base has a lot of automated MG turrets above various doorways and walls. They can be destroyed by small arms fire. When the computers are hacked, the Stormchaser despawns and the door opens. There's an elevator behind the door. César calls while you're on the elevator and says that you're about to peek behind the curtain and that he wishes he could be there too. After the ride down, Rico reaches a room with a giant ball-shaped machine, which is the Blizzard Core. Unusually, the room is completely unguarded. Mira says to disable four "stabilizers" on the "core shielding". The "stabilizers" are the orange glowing areas on the giant ball. Destroying them is easy, as it only takes a bit of small arms fire. Then grapple yourself to the top of the ball. This triggers a cut-scene. Rico inserts his USB stick into the small pillar. Red emergency lights activate in the room and Rico realizes he needs to leave fast. He looks up and sees that the room has no ceiling. There's a large shaft leading up. He grapples upward and wingsuits out of the room as the core explodes below him. The explosion is shown to be in the mountain, right behind the main tower. Tower area A1 When the cut-scene ends, the player is above the area where they had to use a computer and fight the Black Hand at the beginning of the game. This time, there is a massive Black Hand presence. Mira calls and says that the Army of Chaos can't get there in time to stop the super-weapon from launching, so Rico will have to storm into the tower and stop it. No need to fight everyone along the way, just wingsuit your way to the door and walk in. The door is marked as A1. This first room of the tower has another large ball-shaped machine in the middle. There is a handful of Black Hand soldiers in the room with you, but hunting them down is a waste of time because they'll respawn later. One corner of the room has an elevated area with several computers. One of these needs to be hacked to reveal 2 turbines. Revealing them will also spawn some Black Hand soldiers into the room, two of whom are titans. There is an automated MG turret on the wall, above each turbine. These can be destroyed with small arms fire. The turbines are of the same type as seen in a few sidemissions, like Fortaleza Release. They need to be pulled out of the wall by being grappled (with the retractor). This reveals their internal red parts that have to be blown up. During the shootout at this room, the player may notice that areas of the walls are made of glass. That's because these are windows with blast doors covering them on the outside. Once the turbines are blown up, the blast doors open and the player is told to get to the second floor. There are a few helicopters around the tower, but they can be eliminated by being grappled to the tower. Tower area A2 The mission objective brings the player to a door called A2. It's possible to get up there by grappling ones way up the exterior of the tower, or by entering one of the holes in the wall where a turbine used to be. There is a strong updraft in a shaft inside the wall. This can be used to carry Rico up on his parachute. The A2 door is locked, but there's an opening right above it. The area behind it is the most difficult battleground in the game. There are two ways to go about this. The difficult way and the slightly less difficult way. Their area has a lot of Black Hand soldiers (with at least 2 titans among them). Some of them can be killed, but most of them keep respawning at various corners and doorways around the walls and elevated areas. The middle of the area has a turbine that needs to be destroyed. The opposite side of the tower has a large balcony with one of the big black turrets with a very long barrel. Normally these turrets pose no threat at all in most bases where they are encountered, but in this situation, their slow traversal speed is not a problem for them, because the turret is relatively far from Rico and only needs to fire into a small sector. It might be easier to eliminate the titans if the player goes around the outside of the tower and fights from the other side because the turret can't shoot near to itself, but alternatively, the player could try to take cover behind the many random corners. In either case, the important thing to note is that the enemy soldiers keep respawning. The only major threats are the two titans and the large turret. Normally these turrets require you to flip breakers, but in this case, there will be a generator, which, when destroyed, will most probably disable the turret. After the turbine is destroyed, Rico remarks it's "Time to pay Oscar Espinosa a visit." Hallway and waiting room Grapple your way up the tower, to a helipad. From there it's possible to enter a hallway that leads into a waiting room with some plants and other decorations. The corridor has glass doors that open and close automatically. Rico greets Oscar, who is still out of sight and Oscar asks if Rico has made an appointment. The back of the room has two elevators and a titan protecting them. The player will have to eliminate many Black Hand soldiers of various types and two helicopters that will shoot through the windows. The titan can be killed by either a large number of headshots or by explosive weapons and the helicopters can be grappled to the building. The exact unit count is 3 ghosts, 1 Firebrand Scout Chopper, 3 riot shielders, another Firebrand Scout Chopper, 2 Bloodhound Siege Helis. Rico and Oscar keep arguing throughout the whole battle. Rico keeps asking for more enemies to defeat and Oscar assures him that there are plenty more. Rico asks Oscar to come out for a discussion, but Oscar refuses, saying that Rico had only just started a civil war, forcing people to fight their family members. Killing the last of them will trigger the final cut-scene. Office and plane Rico barges into Espinosa's office but finds it empty. Rico presses a button on the desk that calls Oscar. Oscar greets Rico and then takes a moment to trigger something. He then continues the discussion, saying that he has full attention now. Espinosa live chats with Rico that he has an important meeting with Rico's old friends at the Agency. He taunts Rico by explaining that it was the work of his father that made Project Illapa possible and that it was the slow and steady advance of his army that motivated the scientists to work faster. He finishes the taunt by saying that Rico has always done the Agency's bidding, whether he knows it, or not. He then tells Rico that the call will have to end in a minute due to a "hard stop" (technical reasons) and that "everything and everyone on that mountain is about to be decimated by the wrath of a thunder god." The camera shows the "command chopper" (Tom and Mira) further away from the tower and then some Black Hand soldiers standing near Gabriela. She's looking down and possibly contemplating her doom. Oscar continues to explain that "Once you're all dead, I'll deliver the Storm Core to the Agency and settle accounts. They are incredibly excited to finally receive delivery of their new toy." As he says this, the ball-shaped object at the top of the tower opens up at the top. Oscar continues to explain that the Core finished charging a minute or two before Rico cut the power. Rico tells him that he'll find Oscar, but Oscar finishes the call by disagreeing. Rico then grapples one of the small Umas (stone balls) and launches it out of the window along with himself. He then parachutes and grapples his way to the top of the storm core that just launched. It's the same type of flying saucer as seen in Operation Windwalker. Rico inserts his USB device into it and Mira and Izzy get to work on their laptops. Soon they report that this core needs additional codes that they don't have. But then Gabriela interrupts their discussion, to ask what Rico's plan is. Hearing about a firewall, she transmits the necessary codes to disable the firewall. She explains herself, saying that "she will not sacrifice her soldiers for that man's pride". Mira asks Gabriela if she can disable the storm, to which she replies that only Oscar can disable the storm, however, Rico can fly the core out to sea once flight controls are given to him. Rico disagrees, saying that he has a better idea. Oscar is shown in his EM-909 Private Jet when his plane suddenly starts rocking as the storm core approaches him. Rico communicates to Oscar that he found him and asks if he knows the Rodriguez family motto. Oscar says it was never something he and Rico's father discussed and Rico yells "Don't f*ck with a scorpion unless you're prepared to get stung!" Rico then aims the core at the plane and jumps off, while Oscar still attempted to make a deal. The plane explodes from the collision. Back at El Abismo Rico and co' are back at El Abismo having a party. There are at least 10 pinatas around the area. There is also some random Army of Chaos members wandering around. César is talking to Lanza, saying he thought Oscar was an alien, because of the flying saucer. Lanza laughs and says that if only he knew of the other projects that they didn't finish. Tom is having a barbecue. Luis and Mira are next to him. Luis asks Izzy to join them, but she refuses, saying that she's a vegetarian. Tom then explains that it's not a barbecue. It's only a simple grill. Real barbecues are apparently from central Texas, like himself. Mira walks over to Rico, who's looking over the railing into a distance. She asks about the "Don't f*ck with a scorpion" line. Rico doesn't respond but says that something Oscar said is bothering him - that he and his father were always pawns in a larger game. Rico is sure that he was not working for anyone else in Solís. Tom also walks over to him and agrees with that. Tom speculates that destroying Project Illapa must have cost the Agency trillions. Rico then says that he wants to take down the Agency. Tom laughs at this but then notices that he was serious after hearing it again. Tom curses at the idea but agrees to join the effort. Mira who was next to them also agrees. They wonder how they'd do that and Rico, looking at the party crowd, says that they have an army, which is a good start. At this point, the credits start. After the credits Don't move. The crowd is gone, leaving only some random people who normally inhabit El Abismo, but there's a radio near Rico. This radio is tuned to Solís Hoy and it starts at the latest local rumors segment. The hosts discuss the death of Oscar Espinosa and wonder what will become of Solís. They also mention that they've heard that the Army of Chaos is run by Rico and it's said that this makes Rico the next ruler of Solís. See the Solís Hoy article for a more detailed retelling of the segment. Trivia *''In universe'', the mission lasts a whole night. It's about sunset when the mission starts. The actual sunset is seen from Oscar's office. The barbecue is during the next morning. *There's an easter egg to Just Cause 2 near the beginning. When Rico asks Tom if he can fly a helicopter without crashing, he references how Tom had crashed in the beginning. Tom then says that "Air Sheldon flies again!" and chuckles, which is a reference to how he flew the extraction helicopter in JC2. He used to always say "Thanks for flying Air Sheldon!" when dropping the player. *When César says that you're about to peek behind the curtain, it's possibly an easter egg to the 1900 book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" (most famously adapted in the 1939 movie "The Wizard of Oz") where the villain was hiding behind a curtain in the end. *Why is the A2 door located where it is? In universe, it makes no sense to have it up there, instead of on the other side of the tower, where it could be accessed by stairs, or a ramp, or anything reasonable, like even an elevator. *There is an error in logic in the final cut-scene. **The player is shown that Oscar is on his plane, but in-universe Rico still had no idea where he was. **It's possible that Gabriela Morales gave Rico the location of Oscar's plane after she and her troops defect to the Army of Chaos. In announcing her defection, Gabriela made it clear that there was no way she was going to allow the Black Hand to be sacrificed for the sake of Oscar's pride. Gallery Operation Illapa (Lanza explains energy).png|Lanza explains about the detected energy spikes. Operation Illapa (Illapa main tower in the beginning).png|Illapa main tower in the beginning. Operation Illapa (Oscars office).png|Oscar and Gabriela argue in the office. Operation Illapa (flip two breakers at the train station).png|Flip two breakers at the train station. Operation Illapa (heated seats and first roadblock).png|Approaching the first roadblock. Operation Illapa (bigger roadblock at a bridge).png|Bigger roadblock at a bridge. Operation Illapa (Illapa gate).png|Illapa gate. Operation Illapa (generator in a garage).png|Generator in a garage. It's hard to see, but there's a computer next to the door. Operation Illapa (driving the stormchaser into the base).png|Driving the stormchaser into the base. Operation Illapa (fog inside the base).png|Use two computers to open the door to the elevator. Operation Illapa (Blizzard Core seen from the door).png|Blizzard Core seen from the door. Operation Illapa (Blizzard Core seen from above).png|Blizzard Core seen from above. The stabilizers are the orange lights at the "corners". Operation Illapa (Blizzard Core side).png|Blizzard Core side. Operation Illapa (shaft above the Blizzard Core).png|Shaft above the Blizzard Core. Operation Illapa (Blizzard Core explodes near the tower).png|Blizzard Core explodes near the tower. Operation Illapa (storm the tower).png|The Army of Chaos won't make it in time. Attack the tower yourself. Operation Illapa (A1 computer).png|Computer in the A1 room. Operation Illapa (A1 titan and his drone).png|One of the titans and his drone in the A1 room. Operation Illapa (turbine hole has a vent).png|This turbine hole in the A1 room has a vent. It can be used to get up to A2 faster. Operation Illapa (last turbine, seen from above the A2 door).png|Last turbine, seen from above the A2 door. Operation Illapa (A2 area seen from the other side).png|A2 area seen from the other side. Operation Illapa (corridor to the waiting room).png|Corridor to the waiting room. Operation Illapa (waiting room).png|Waiting room. Operation Illapa (grapple the helicopters to the building).png|Grapple the helicopters to the building. Operation Illapa (buenos dias).png|Rico finds the office empty, but calls Oscar from a phone in the desk. Operation Illapa (Oscars plane).png|Oscars plane. Operation Illapa (tower seen from the command helicopter).png|Tower seen from the command helicopter. Operation Illapa (Gabriela contemplates her doom).png|Gabriela contemplates her doom. Operation Illapa (once you're all dead).png|Oscars plan. Operation Illapa (ball is opening).png|Oscar has triggered the ball at the top of the tower to open. Operation Illapa (Core is taking off and Rico parachutes).png|The core is taking off and Rico parachutes to it. Operation Illapa (Gabriela transmits codes).png|Gabriela transmits codes. Operation Illapa (Gabriela will not sacrifice for that mans pride).png|Gabriela defects. Operation Illapa (Party at El Abismo).png|Party at El Abismo. Operation Illapa (barbecue).png|Barbecue. Operation Illapa (this is grillin').png|This is just grillin'. Operation Illapa (trillions).png|Tom estimates that this must have cost the Agency trillions. Operation Illapa (Let's take down The Agency).png|Rico wants to take down The Agency. Operation Illapa (not a bad start).png|Having an army is not a bad start. Category:Content Category:Just Cause 4 Missions